


Our Puzzle Pieces Fit Together

by RavnOfManyFandoms



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Clint ask her out already, Depression, F/F, F/M, Farmer is not super happy but not super depressed, Farmer sister and the can of worms, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Getting Together, Junimos, M/M, Magic, Sex, Shane makes him want to be better, Slow Build, Suicide Attempt, Wingman Farmer
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-05
Updated: 2019-10-06
Packaged: 2020-11-24 16:30:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20910686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RavnOfManyFandoms/pseuds/RavnOfManyFandoms
Summary: Ultimately this fic will tell the tale of how even broken people with uneven parts from being stitched up not quite right, can fit with one another to be a much more whole person than they could apart. It will also tell some stories from Stardew Valley main game with some plots from the expansion I enjoy.





	1. A Silence more Deafening than a Crowd

**Author's Note:**

> Depression and Anxiety are two things I am closely intimate with. Using my struggles as well as many people’s stories created the main farmers personality.Updates as sporadic, as my other current fanfiction based in Skyrim, I’m in college, and will be jumping from writing one fiction to the other as I progress both sorry I gotta do what’s driving me.

Calem Bohanan was your typical office worker, who did your average office work job under the Joja Corporation. He started as an intern while taking a business major in college. He mostly worked on Marketing in college but instead of actually being able to move up from his current position in sales to an actual job in the marketing department, he sits here as he has for the last 5 years. His sister was always the one who was getting somewhere after all, he knew that, his family had always known that, and now, it seems even his bosses knew that. Calem would always be adequate.  
Calem sighed aloud, after finishing his latest RFP for Janice, his newest manager. He flipped his burgundy hair out of his face, he preferred having it long, bangs wavy and side swept, mostly out of his face, and the rest of his hair was pulled into a pony tail in the back. 

“Aww wants wrong little red.” 

Calem looked up and say his work nemesis, or rather the office asshole/pretend sweet heart, Carol. She was always trying to find ways of getting her co-workers in trouble so that she could possibly get promoted.  
“Hey Carol.” He replied to her pretentious smirk.  
“You feeling all right, your sister get another case closed while you sit here.”  
“She did, Alice always does, that’s her job. And my job, while you’ve been trying to chat me up here, was just finished.” He bit back with his own shark smile. He loved seeing her flounder against him.  
She choked spittle for a minute. “Chat you up, ha, you’re so funny.”  
“I mean I’m right aren’t I. You’re here, and I just sent in my third RFP for the company we were assigned to.”  
“What?!”  
“Yup, all done, taken care of, and without you working on it, something that our manager finally caught onto.”  
“WHAT”  
“With that, I gathered up my stuff for bringing home, including the paperwork I’d probably be asked to do tonight, and walked out of the office, heading home to an old and smelly apartment complex that I could afford.

A few weeks had passed since that day. Unfortunately, Carol wasn’t fired but demoted, she didn’t have as much sway as me but with every turn she was trying to either fuck me up, or get people to hate me. A Vendetta of vengeance as one might say. Almost no one talked to me anymore, even our manager was ‘too busy to’ at times.  
Getting another migraine from thinking too much about how depressing my life was turning out to be or probably by how long id been staring at the computer. I opened my drawer to pull out the pain medication when I spotted a crumpled white envelope at the back of the drawer. 

Calem pulled it out and turned it over. All it said was his name but he recognized it immediately. It was the last letter from his Grandpa he ever received. He got it shortly before his grandpa passed. He was going to open it, until he got the call from his mother about his passing. The Bohanans were never a close-knit family, but his grandpa had always tried to get them all together, usually it was just him and his sister who went for a few days to visit. He had fond memories of that small little cabin on his grandfather’s farm. While his parents always understood and listened to his sister over him, his grandpa always seem to try and understand him, and that, meant the world to the red-haired kid. Even now, in his mid-twenties, he felt a warmth from the letter he longed for bittersweetly. He decided that know more than ever he needed to read some of the last words his grandfather imparted to him. 

“Dear Calem,  
I hope you’re fairing well in life. Of all of my grandchildren I feel you may be closest to me and understand me the best. If you're reading this, you must be in dire need of a change. The same thing happened to me, long ago. I'd lost sight of what mattered most in life... real connections with other people and nature. So, I dropped everything and moved to the place I truly belong.  
I’ve enclosed the deed to that place… my pride and joy: Hope Springs Farm. Its located in Stardew Valley, on the Southern Coast. It’s the perfect place to start a new life. One I think you might enjoy. This is my most precious gift of all, and now it is yours. I know you will honor this gift, more than any of the others might, my boy. I know my time is coming to end and I only wish I could’ve helped you grow more Calem. I wish you the best of luck, and I love you,  
Your Grandfather.”

Tears silently dripped onto the paper. Calem could feel himself crying, a happy yet deep yearning filled his heart reading his grandfather’s letter. He felt emotions he thought long since buried rising as he continued and the emotional up heavily of these emotions left him raw. He knew what he had to do and quickly gathered himself together. He went to his manager and asked to have a talk with her.  
“Hello Calem, what a surprise. what can I do for you?” She spoke in a well mannered but cold voice. Janice was a no-nonsense woman, always brimming with a well-tailored fake pleasantry.  
“Well, I’d umm…sorry this is a first.”  
“Understandable Calem, but unfortunately, we can’t offer you a vacation at this time, if that’s what this is about.”  
‘vacation, ive never even had the ability to take sick leave. Why have I been here this long…’  
“Well, no Janice, I… think I’m…, no I know I’m going to quit.”  
“Oh?”  
“Yup, I’d like to put in my two-week notice.”  
“Well…if you’re sure, you’re sure.”  
“That’s… it? You’re not even going to try and keep me.”  
“Nope, look Calem, you’re a decent worker but there’s always someone who can do what you do isn’t there.”  
‘Great, I knew it, even my bosses just think I’m average, well too bad, I’m going to be great, ill show them, all show all of them, my Grandpa trusted me with his farm.’  
“Well, I disagree…” Janice looked shocked, I'd never said those two words to her, or any of my bosses really. “But fine, have a great time finding someone.” With that I left her office, went back to gather my things and start finalizing things for my end of my time at Joja.


	2. The Sound of a New Day Dawning

“Yes mother, you did hear me correctly.” Calem Stood at the bus stop, with a backpack full of things and a suitcase with the rest. Living in the tiny one-bedroom apartment yielded very little room to keep things, and the terrible salary with Joja kept him from buying much more other than essentials. Hell, his only cell phone was a flip phone, which he was currently talking into.  
He currently wore a nice dark green shirt, a faded, brown jacket, and an old pair of blue jeans. He decided to keep his hair long, mostly because of how expensive haircuts could be. He did however make one unique change which was to grow out his facial hair into a shapely goatee. His bright green eyes rolled in exasperation.  
“I heard you, I just don’t understand, you had a decent job, an okay pay, why did you decide to leave Joja?”  
“Joja didn’t pay me good at all, you saw the affairs of my bank account, I could barely afford food, even with the small Joja Mart discount I got, and that food was just…bad.” It was true, since college Calem had been losing a substantial amount of weight, partly to not being able to afford much food, and when he could, most of the food, was low in vitamins and essential calories.  
“Well, yes but weren’t you holding out for that marketing division job?”  
“For five years, Mother.”  
“Unfortunately, I’m not surprised.” She gave a sigh.  
“What.” Calem asked, drained and shocked still.  
“I mean, Calem, did you honestly expect to be handed the position, you must work for your things. Alice has been working diligent for just as long and her law firm just gave her another award for her service, plus a hefty pay bonus, perhaps you needed to apply more.”

‘Of course, compare us, and because Alice is doing so well, of course it’s my fault that I’m not as brilliant or successful as her. If Alice can do it so well, why doesn’t she start working at Joja and see if she can make it out alive, with Carol and Janice dogging her heels.’  
‘No. Stop. Relax. It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks, Granpa trusted you, you will make Hope Springs Farm amazing again, no one else.’  
“Grandpa left me his farm.”  
“Calem, that’s wonderful sweety, you can sell it and move back home, you can find another place to work I’m sure.”  
“No Mother, he left me HIS farm. I’m not going to sell it.”  
“Calem sweety, farm life is not a great career path, it’s a lot of work, and I don’t thi-“  
“MOM!”  
“Calem.” She said in a shocked breathy voice.  
“Grandpa sent me a letter like a week before he died with his deed, which is why it was never apart of his will. He said he was trusting me with his happiness, he wanted me to work it, he wanted me to be apart of it. I am not letting him down. IF YOU THINK FOR ONE SECOND, I AM GOING TO LET YOU DECIDE WHAT TO DO WITH IT, YOU ARE DEAD WRONG.”  
“DON’T YOU YELL IT ME!”  
“THEN DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO…” He coughed. “I won’t yell, but I also will not let my fate be dictated, you don’t know anything about me, never have, Grandpa, he knew me, he knew who I was, I will not do anything with that farm but live and work it until it’s the best damn farm in Stardew.”  
“Calem, I just don’t want you to get your hopes up before it crumbles around you.”  
“My hopes won’t be shattered Mom; my hopes will spring.” He immediately ended the phone call, clicking it shut was the most satisfying sound he’d heard in a long time.  
The woman at the stop with him and her child started clapping. Turning to his audience he blushed. “Err… sorry about all that.”  
“Don’t worry young man, this is my third, I know how she’s feeling but only you can decide how your future will go, and I think you’ve got it made kiddo.” Her son gave a toothy grin and a thumbs up. One of his teeth was missing but it was a bright smile regardless.  
“Thanks.”

It was a few hours to Stardew by bus. Calem saw many things on his way there. The amazing scenery was almost magical in his eyes as he drew closer to his new home. The anticipation was mounting as he went over his itinerary. First, he’d have to meet with the mayor, Lewis, and then survey the land and then try and buy some seeds to get started.  
Calem remembered there was a larger house at one point but after some roofing problems, his grandfather settled for a Cabin and just ate at the Saloon in town until his passing. Dinner with a question mark was added to the list, it should be late afternoon once he reached his destination.  
When he got off the bus with his pack and suitcase he was greeted by a friendly looking woman. 

“Hi, welcome to Stardew. You must be Calem.”  
“Hey, Yup, that’s me, I like your hair.” She chuckled as he blushed, going as red as both their heads of hair.  
“I’m Robin the local carpenter. Mayor Lewis sent me here to fetch you and show you round to you new home. He’s there trying to tidy it up a bit for you.”  
“Mighty kind of him, and you for that matter.”  
“It’s no trouble at all, now if you follow me, I can get you there, the farms right over here.”

The two walked a short distance away from the bus stop. When they got to Hope Springs farm, the state of it was made very apparent.  
“Here we are, Hope Springs Farm…”  
“Oh…oh dear.” Sweat began to pool at the back of Calem’s neck.  
“What, oh… yeah… sure it’s a lil overgrown at the moment but there’s some great soil underneath at all. With a little dedication I’m sure you’ll have it cleaned up in no time.”  
She smiled brightly at him. “Thanks, I umm…”  
“What cat got your tongue?”  
“Nope, not many people have believed in me like that, it’s a nice change.”  
“Well you should definitely get use to it, round here we try and build each other up not down, we aren’t like those city folk.”  
A small, unhappy grin formed on his face, “Yeah, just the city folk….”  
Robin looked sad and a little curious but was stopped by mayor Lewis exiting the small cabin.

“Welcome, I’m Lewis, the mayor of Pelican Town, just east of here. Everyone’s been asking about you. Don’t worry, nothing bad, it’s just not everyday that someone new moves in. It’s quite the big deal.” The mayor talked extremely quickly, with a big smile stretched across his face. Joking but not unpleasant to say the least.  
‘Everyone around here just seems so…happy... hopefully I can be happy here too.’ Calem thought, which softened his sad grin into a more pleasant smile.  
“So you’re moving into your Grandfather’s old cottage.” The mayor continued on. “…it’s a… good house… very rustic.”  
The three of them stared at the cottage, some disrepair from being abandoned for so long became eminent. It was at this time a shingle came off from the wind and landed with a soft thud on the ground to the side of the house.  
“Rustic? That’s one way to put it.” Robin said between snorts of soft laughter. “’Crusty’ might be a lil more apt, though.”  
“RUDE.” Lewis jumped up as Robin began laughing in earnest.

“You can say it, the place ill be living in needs more than a little determination to fix up.” Calem sighed as if the universe might be making a joke out of him.  
“Aww don’t listen to her, Calem. She’s just trying to get you dissatisfied with the house so that you can buy one of her many house upgrades.”  
Robin stood still and had a terrified look on her face.  
“I’m not gonna lie, Mayor, it was working before she said anything though.”  
Both Robin and Lewis laughed at that while Calem looked pleased to have caused it.  
“Anyway, you must be tired from your long journey. You should get some rest. Got a bed nice and ready for sheets for ya, and small table and chair too.”  
“Aww, shucks you didn’t have to do that for me mayor.”  
“Nonsense, and you can just call me Lewis, everyone in town does. I knew your Grandpa pretty well my boy, I promised him that I’d look out for ya in case you ever came here, so its fine.”  
“Thank you, sir, err Lewis.”  
Robin chuckled at my misspeak.  
“No problem, and Marnie had a spare T.V. for ya put in too. She runs the animal ranch just south of here, also knew your Grandpa.”  
“I’ll have to thank her too then.”  
“Ha ha, theres the spirit, you get some shut eye now. Tomorrow you ought to explore the town a bit and introduce yourself. I’m sure everyone would appreciate it.  
“Thank you again.”  
“It is no problem Calem. Oh, almost forgot. If you get things to sell, there’s a box round back for things me or someone will pick up, price and give some cash for in the mail overnight.”  
“Good Luck.” Was called from both of them as they went to town.  
Calem started unpacking his things after entering the house, he left most of his clothes in his suitcase and fixed the furnishings up to his liking. A small bonsai tree was placed on his table, his sheets were spread on the bed, and by the time he finished showering, he was too tired to do anything but pass out in bed.


End file.
